A guidance tool that tells a founder what to do next based on the stage their startup is at — and where to do it. At every stage it lays out the moves across five dimensions — incorporate/register, comply, hire, raise, and apply to accelerators — for India and the US, then recommends the single most suitable next step, grounded in real, cited sources and how 13 of the world's top companies actually did it (Stripe, Airbnb, Dropbox, Figma, Notion, Postman, Canva, Brex, CRED, Razorpay, Zerodha, Flipkart, Zoho).
Seven stages, zero → hero:
Idea → Validate → Incorporate → MVP → Traction → Raise → Scale
This is one end-to-end product:
- Backend (
backend/) — FastAPI + SQLite. Serves the sourced knowledge base (stages, per-geography playbook, company case studies), stores the founder's profile (current stage, geography, completed milestones), and recommends the next step. Works with zero setup. - Frontend (repo root) — React + Vite + TypeScript + Tailwind + shadcn/ui. A stage rail you walk through, per-dimension playbook cards with real "where" links, company precedents, milestone checkboxes, and an AI next-step panel.
- Stage rail — see all seven stages, your progress in each, and where you are now.
- Per-stage playbook — for the stage you're on, the concrete moves across incorporation, compliance, hiring, fundraising and incubators — filtered to India, US, or both — each with the official place to do it and a note.
- How top companies did it — real case studies attached to each stage, with the move they made, the lesson, and a source link.
- Milestones — tick off what you've done; your progress drives the recommendation.
- 🧠 Next step — recommends the single highest-leverage move for your stage,
geography and progress, with real links and a matching company precedent. Runs
Claude when
ANTHROPIC_API_KEYis set server-side, otherwise a deterministic heuristic over the same knowledge base. Never invents a service, URL or fact — every link is cited from the sourced KB.
Guidance, not legal/tax/financial advice. Fees, deadlines and program terms change — always confirm on the linked official page before acting.
Backend (terminal 1):
cd backend
python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
cp .env.example .env # optional: add ANTHROPIC_API_KEY for AI next-step
uvicorn main:app --reload --port 8000Frontend (terminal 2):
npm install
npm run dev # http://localhost:8080Open http://localhost:8080. Pick your geography, click through the stages, tick
off milestones, and hit Suggest my next step. Point it at a different backend
with VITE_API_BASE (see .env.example).
| Method | Route | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
GET |
/api/health |
Claude wired? + stage count |
GET |
/api/journey |
the full knowledge base (stages, dimensions, playbook, companies) |
GET |
/api/profile |
current founder profile |
PUT |
/api/profile |
set stage and/or geography |
POST |
/api/profile/progress |
toggle a milestone done/undone |
POST |
/api/next-step |
recommend the single most suitable next move |
All guidance lives in backend/kb.json — a curated, sourced framework. Examples:
India incorporation via MCA SPICe+ / Razorpay Rize, DPIIT recognition,
GST, iSAFE/CCPS, SISFS grants, ROC AOC-4/MGT-7, RBI FC-GPR;
US Delaware C-corp via Stripe Atlas/Clerky/Firstbase, IRS EIN, the
83(b) election (Form 15620), Carta vesting, Delaware franchise tax;
hiring via Wellfound / YC Work at a Startup / Instahyre / Cutshort, ESOPs and EOR
(Deel/Remote/Rippling); fundraising via SAFE / YC docs, AngelList, LetsVenture;
accelerators YC, Techstars, 500 Global, Antler, Surge, T-Hub, NSRCEL, SINE.
Every item links to its official source; the recommender is constrained to use
only what's in the KB.
- Backend — FastAPI, SQLite (stdlib
sqlite3), Anthropic SDK for the next-step recommendation. - Frontend — Vite + React + TypeScript, Tailwind + shadcn/ui, TanStack Query.